Lakes in Florida - alligators??

I have been to the Orlando, FL area many times and I remember hearing and reading newspaper/TV reports about alligators in the lakes and problems with them munching on dogs, cats, etc., from the houses near the lakes. If that is true, is there any concern with alligators when you are wakeboarding??? My son claims there are no alligators on the lakes, especially the ones in the wakeboard videos, but I find that hard to believe. I have seen alligators in the lakes/ponds on many of the golf courses I have played in Florida. So, are there alligators in the lakes where people are wakeboarding and is there any concern about it??? Strange topic, yes.

Shoe,
Every body of water in Florida has a gator in it. Some lakes have more than others. I have been wakeboarding on a lake north of us that has a lot of full grown gators, we'd see a dozen or more while cruising the shoreline looking for smooth water. I've even passed very close to them once in a while on my board, they usually submerge or swim away when you get too close. They don't like the sound of engines so they avoid boats. Still gets a little creepy when you are sitting in the water waiting for the line to tighten. If we see a gator, we try not to end our runs anywhere near it. No skier has ever been attacked by a gator but you have to respect them enough to use your head and keep your distance.

Alligators generally feed at dusk, and usually an adult is a bit too large for them to pursue but you can't count on that because it does happen. Often when someone is attacked by a gator it is a child, usually swimming near the shore late in the afternoon.

The bottom line is to assume they will kill you, and avoid risky behavior like swimming in a grassy shoreline (nesting grounds), swimming at dusk, swimming where one was spotted.

Here's a link which hopefully will lead to my Yahoo photo album, showing a pic of a 10 foot gator we passed by last year after a day of wakeboarding. He definately was not afraid of us, and you would not want tosee this guy coming at you while waiting to yell "hit it!"

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tuf...;.dnm=f216.jpg

Brian

I live in ohio so i dont know much about this, but i've heard that alligators in the lake are kind of like sharks in the ocean. For all the people that arnt there much are always afraid of them, but once you swim in the ocean alot (or wakeboard in the lakes) you kind of get used to bein around them and dont think much of them. (I dont know how true this is though) But to me, as soon as i fall neer an alligator that would be enough to make me want back in the boat haha